An important consideration in data communication equipment is circuit density. Most central data communication locations have limited space. Therefore, there is a need to reduce the size of data communication equipment, and install as much data communication equipment as possible in a relatively small space at a central data communication location.
For data communication manufacturers, making high density trays can be a challenging process in which engineers develop trays to meet the high density needs of the central data communication locations while protecting communication lines, maintaining bend radii of the communication lines, and managing massive amounts of the communication lines. This is particularly true for optical fiber communication lines, where the engineers create trays having a high density of optical fibers.
Another important consideration in data communication equipment is configurability. Existing high density fiber trays can have limited configurability and are generally dedicated to a particular cable management use in the central data communication location. For example, existing high density fiber trays have front cable management features dedicated to specific cable types and a back cable management features dedicated to specific cable types. Dedicated front and back cable management features may be exacerbated when making a high density fiber tray exclusively for a particular high density fiber application. For example, existing high density fiber trays may be manufactured exclusively for application in a chassis, application in a cabinet, a wall mount application, etc. Where existing high density fiber trays may be manufactured exclusively for a particular high density fiber application, each of the existing high density fiber trays may have different front cable management features dedicated to specific cable types and/or different back cable management features dedicated to specific cable types exclusively for the particular high density fiber application. Because each high density fiber tray may have different front cable management features dedicated to specific cable types and/or different back cable management features dedicated to specific cable types this reduces the configurability of the high density fiber trays, thereby reducing margins by increasing the cost of manufacturing and increasing manufacturing lead times of high density fiber trays. Therefore, there is a desire to maximize margins by decreasing a cost of manufacturing the high density fiber trays, as well as maximizing a tray's utility in a number of applications by making them easily factory configurable.